Call for Public Comments on EU’s New Organic Regulations
In June 2018, the European Union adopted new organic regulation that will be going into effect from January 2021, both for EU and non-EU producers.
The EU Commission is now working on secondary legislation which will contain more detailed rules on organic certification.
Three drafts are currently open for public consultation, including the “implementing regulation (EU) laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council on controls and other measures ensuring traceability and compliance in organic production and the labelling of organic products”, which contains new, detailed requirements for group certification. The newly proposed group certification requirements could have significant impact on small farmers around the world who produce for the EU market.
Until August 26, 2020, you can submit your feedback on these proposed drafts to the EU Commission.
IFOAM - Organics International and IFOAM - Organics Europe have put together a short brief which we invite you to use when answering the EU public consultation.
Critical changes are:
1) The need to form a new legal personality for each group consisting only of small organic farmers.
2) A new limit on the number of small farmers allowed in each group. Currently, no such limit exists.
3) Higher external control rates and residue sampling requirements.